Though Fisher passed away prior to Episode 9 beginning filming, Abrams knew he needed to keep Leia in the final Skywalker movie's story. "What are you going to do?" he said on stage at the Episode 9 Star Wars Celebration panel. "You don't recast that part, and you don't have her suddenly disappear."

Abrams realized that he had enough unused footage of Fisher from filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens that he could create a story around Leia and still have her play a significant role in the movie. From the way Abrams explained it, Leia's entire arc is built around the story he could form from her archival footage, which meant they didn't have to resort to any other storytelling tricks like CG recreations of Leia to fit her into the Episode 9 story.

"The idea of using a CG character was off the table. We didn't even want to try," said Abrams of how he, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and co-writer Chris Terrio "built scenes around" Fisher.

Star Wars: Episode 9 is now in post-production, and Abrams said watching Fisher in these scenes as they're in the editing process is a surreal experience.

"Emotionally, every day it hits me that she is not here, but it's so surreal because we're working with her still, if that makes sense. She's in scenes, she's so alive in scenes, and the craziest thing is so how so not crazy it feels," said Abrams. "Princess Leia lives in this film in a way that is kind of mind-blowing to me."

"She was the best. She was glorious. She was amazing," he said. "We all just loved her."

The final installment of the third Star Wars trilogy, starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Poe Dameron and directed by J.J. Abrams, hits theaters on December 20, 2019. Stay tuned for IGN's coverage of Star Wars Celebration Chicago, which is expected to include the official title of Episode 9 and the first trailer!

Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.